Scroogled in the Wall Street Journal

By Cory Doctorow at 10:29 pm Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

The Wall Street Journal just published a short interview with me about my story Scroogled, which appears in Radar this month. It's a commissioned piece where the brief was, "Write a story about the day Google turned evil," and it's the first Creative Commons-licensed story to appear in Radar Magazine.

WSJ.com: Are there signs of that at Google? Are they doing something that concerns you?

Mr. Doctorow: Sure, absolutely, there have been lots of signs of that. I mean, one of the things that I think is in Google's DNA is a real tension about, on the one hand, being good to people, but on the other hand, acquiring as much information about them as they can, under the rubric that it allows them to be better to people.

And it does, a lot of the time. There are lots of ways in which Google knowing more about you makes Google better for you. But without much regard to what's happening in the world around us, in an era in which the national security apparatus has turned into a kind of lumbering, savage, giant toddler, it behooves us to not leave things within arm's reach that it might stick in its mouth. And that includes things like my search history. And I'd prefer that Google not be storing a lot of that stuff, especially today, especially after Patriot [Act] and so on. They're inviting abuse, I think, by doing that. The steps you don't save can't be subpoenaed. And by saving them, Google is inviting a subpoena.

So Google's always had this kind of "We will collect all your information, and it will belong to us, and you won't be able to take it away, but it's OK because we'll only do good things for you" attitude, and that's a bit of a problem.

Link (Thanks, Chris!)

See also: Scroogled: CC-licensed story about the day Google turned evil

Update: Hervé Le Crosnier and C&F Editions have translated the story into French and put the translation online under the same Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Oliver Sacks explains how your brain does music

By Cory Doctorow at 10:23 pm Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Oliver Sacks has an interview in the latest Wired, talking about his new book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain with Steve Silberman. This sounds like a fantastic book -- a real Sacks-ian exploration of all the wild and illuminating ways the brain has of dealing with music.

Hume wondered whether one can imagine a color that one has never encountered. One day in 1964, I constructed a sort of pharmacological mountain, and at its peak, I said, "I want to see indigo, now!" As if thrown by a paintbrush, a huge, trembling drop of purest indigo appeared on the wall -- the color of heaven. For months after that, I kept looking for that color. It was like the lost chord.

Then I went to a concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the first half, they played the Monteverdi Vespers, and I was transported. I felt a river of music 400 years long running from Monteverdi's mind into mine. Wandering around during the interval, I saw some lapis lazuli snuffboxes that were that same wonderful indigo, and I thought, "Good, the color exists in the external world." But in the second half I got restless, and when I saw the snuffboxes again, they were no longer indigo -- they were blue, mauve, pink. I've never seen that color since.

It took a mountain of amphetamine, mescaline, and cannabis to launch me into that space. But Monteverdi did it too.

Link

See also: Oliver Sacks on music and amnesia

SRL crew member injured in post-show accident

By Xeni Jardin at 4:17 pm Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Update: Todd's friends have set up the PayPal account, so those who are moved to do so can help with medical expenses: Link.

Here's a message just now posted on the website for Survival Research Laboratories, or SRL. The group is renowned worldwide for their mechanized performances, each of which consists of "a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices."

Robodock Show Update - Todd Blair Injured in Amsterdam

In a freak accident veteran crew member Todd Blair was knocked to the ground sustaining critical head injuries after the show on Saturday. The doctors in Amsterdam are keeping him in an induced coma, and won't have a complete prognosis for a while. In deference to Todd, Alex (Todd's girlfriend), and the families, we had been keeping the information about this tragic occurence within the family. Amy Critchett and Eric Paulos were with Todd during his surgery and now Alex has arrived and he seems to be responding well to her presence.

Many people have been concerned and asking for details so while it is too early to determine what the outcome is, the news as of this morning is that his condition has stabilized and we will know more shortly.

In the meantime, for those who want to show their support checks can be made out to "Alexandra Ismerio," and sent to Susan Maunu, 3828 Alzada Road, Altadena, CA 91001.

Keep the love, prayers, and healing thoughts for Todd coming, it definitely makes a difference! Show images and video are also forthcoming, to stay on top of that keep checking the Official SRL at Robodock Page.

Our most heartfelt wishes of support for Mr. Blair and his loved ones, and for the entire SRL community.

Here is a blog set up to track his recovery and assist with medical expenses.

List of the "World's Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories"

By David Pescovitz at 3:34 pm Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

From the Swallowing The Camel blog, a list of "The World's Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories." Here are a few of my faves, in no particular order. The author of main proponent of each is listed beside the theory. From the post:

• Stephen King killed John Lennon. (Steve Lightfoot)
• WWII was staged. It never really happened. The Illuminati employed elaborate special effects, stage magic, and phony journalism to scare the world into pacifism. (Donald Holmes)
• The doomed Franklin Expedition was sent to the Arctic not only to find the Northwest Passage, but to secretly investigate UFO sightings that had been reported since the 1700s. The men were captured, experimented upon, and eaten by giant aliens. (Jeffrey Blair Latta)
• The 1939 War of the Worlds radio broadcoast was a psychological warfare study funded by C.D. Jackson on behalf of the Rockefeller Foundation, designed to find out how Americans would react to an enemy invasion. Funny... in a trailer for his mockumentary F is for Fake, Orson Welles did say the WoW broadcast had "secret sponsors". (Daniel Hopsicker)
• Aspartame, flouride, genetically modified foods, and vaccines are used specifically to keep us sick and open to suggestion, and/or as part of a secret depopulation plan designed by the world's elite.

Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Saudi religious police attacked by girls

By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:49 pm Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Two officers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia were attacked by two "inappropriately-dressed" girls, according to an article in the Asharq Alawsat.

According to Dr. Al-Marshood [Head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the Eastern province], the two commission members approached the girls in order to "politely" advise and guide them regarding their inappropriate clothing.

Consequently, the two girls started verbally abusing the commission members, which then lead to one of the girls pepper-spraying them in the face as the other girl filmed the incident on her mobile phone, while continuing to hurl insults at them.

The paper reports that the girls were escorted to a police station, where they apologized and were released. Link (Thanks, Coop!)

See-thru pinball machine

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:09 pm Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Greg says:

Michael Schiess - -proprietor of the legendary Lucky JuJu Pinball Arcade in Alameda, CA -- has with the help of a few friends transformed a 1976 "Surf Champ" Gottlieb pinball machine piece by piece into a completely transparent pinball machine. The machine will be part of a science center exhibit he's developing around the science of pinball machines. This thing is beautiful.

Read about the machine here and check out the Flickr gallery. The machine will be on public display for the first time at this year's Pacific Pinball Expo.

Link

Photo series peeping toms in Japan, circa 1970

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:27 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

From OKfuture.net: "Here is a fascinating story about a series of photos taken of Peeping Toms in Japan in the 70’s. These furtive voyeurs were sneaking around parks late at night in search of romantic encounters. The photos were taken by photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki while he was taking a walk with a friend through a park late at night. He noticed a couple on the ground, with a small but growing ring of men crawling towards them."

“I had my camera, but it was dark,” he told the photographer Nobuyoshi Araki in a 1979 interview for a Japanese publication. Researching the technology in the era before infrared flash units, he found that Kodak made infrared flashbulbs. Mr. Yoshiyuki returned to the park, and to two others in Tokyo, through the ’70s. He photographed heterosexual and homosexual couples engaged in sexual activity and the peeping toms who stalked them.

Link | NY Times audio slideshow here

Person ditches house on the Hollywood freeway

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:20 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Last Saturday when we were driving to the LA County Fair, my wife and kids and I saw this house parked on the other side of the Hollywood Freeway. The traffic behind the house was at a standstill for miles.

I forgot all about it until a Boing Boing reader, Michael, sent me this news story. Apparently some guy ditched his house on the Hollywood Freeway, and it's been there since Saturday.

Patrick Richardson's now immobile home was being moved Saturday from Santa Monica to Santa Clarita when several mishaps _ including a roof-shredding blow while attempting to pass beneath an overpass _ slowed its progress and it fell off its trailer.

Richardson, 45, got an oversized load permit from the California Department of Transportation. But instead of following the authorized Santa Monica-San Diego-Golden State freeways route, authorities said, he headed through downtown Los Angeles and then onto the Hollywood Freeway.

In the downtown area, the wheels started falling off, California Highway Patrol Officer Jason McCutcheon said.

I started looking for the song in the documentary about X, The Unheard Music, that had shots of a house being towed through the streets of LA, but I couldn't find it. I did find this great video from the movie, of "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline," though. Link

HIV activist silenced for fear of surveillance

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:11 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Newsday story about a 35-year-old woman named Jennifer Flynn, an activist who works for getting funding and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients. She noticed that cars were tailing her over long distances as she drove around visiting her family. She wrote down the license plate of one of the cars, and it's registered to a phantom company at a non-existent address.

The license plate number traces back to a company - Pequot Inc. - and a post office box at an address far from the five boroughs. Registering unmarked cars to post office boxes outside the city or to shell companies is a common practice of law enforcement agencies to shield undercover investigators.

.....

The street named on the license-plate printout exists, though the address doesn't. An auto-shop worker on the block suggests checking with the post office. When Postmaster Bonnie Colgan and an assistant are shown the printout, they stop dead in their tracks.

There's a Pequot Capital Management in midtown and a Pequot Construction in the Bronx. But no Pequot Inc. in Amenia.

"That's not a real company," the assistant says. "The people who used that box, they're from New York. They used to come here and get the mail, but not anymore."

Colgan is tempted to elaborate, but doesn't.

"I can't because of the sensitive nature of the issue," she says.

Link (Thanks, Jeff!)

Cops complaining about cops writing cops tickets

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:03 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Jake says:

Apparently, police corruption isn't worthy of hiding any more. Here's a site where cops (of various flavors) name and shame other police officers who have the temerity to issue tickets to their "brother" police officers when said "brothers" break the law.

Don't miss the "Dick of the Month" section of the website, which could, in my opinion, be renamed "Cops Who Actually Do Their Jobs."

Link

Amazon creates gigantic DRM-free music store!

By Cory Doctorow at 8:04 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Amazon is selling 2,000,000 tracks as DRM-free MP3s!

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today launched a public beta of "Amazon MP3," a new digital music download store with Earth's biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads. Amazon MP3 has over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. Amazon MP3 complements Amazon.com's existing selection of over 1 million CDs to now offer customers more selection of physical and digital music than any other retailer.

"Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices," said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music. "This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we're excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service."

Every song and album on Amazon MP3 is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. This means that Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device, including PCs, Macs™, iPods™, Zunes™, Zens™, iPhones™, RAZRs™, and BlackBerrys™; organize their music using any music management application such as iTunes™ or Windows Media Player™; and burn songs to CDs.

Link (via Engadget)

Furries vs Klingons bowling tournament this Sat in Atlanta

By Cory Doctorow at 2:00 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

This Saturday, Atlanta's Midtown Bowl will see the second annual Klingons vs Furries bowling tournament, in a mighty subcultural clash. It's like Quadrophenia with furrs and trekkers instead of mods and rockers. Link (via Glo bal Nerdy)

Update: An anonymous Klingon in our message board adds this:

I am one of the Klingons in the photo (tall one back row far right). This event was not presented to our Klingon (KAG) group as a challenge. The challenge was between the STAR TREK club, and not the Klingon club.

The OP of the ad made this up. The challenge was never accepted because it was never offered.

While this event WILL PROBABLY happen in the future, it will not happen this Saturday. No Klingons are available on such short notice, and many of our best bowlers are off-world (cough) doing, um, Klingon stuff.

I admit I'm surprised how this is turning out to be so popular. Perhaps we can use this to benefit a sponsored charity.

And yes, we will wax the floor with these...creatures who use tribbles for butt wipes.

Qapla'

I'd say we are sorry for the confusion, but being Klingon means never having to say you're sorry.

Prison food convention video

By Cory Doctorow at 1:55 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Slate has a great little video from a prison-food convention. Thrill to made-in-China crinkle-cut carrots, gasp at a knife-locker, leer suggestively at the stick-free corn-dogs, and chuckle ironically at the revelation that the prison system demands higher quality food than the school system. Link (via Geekologie)

Lamps that look like silhouettes cut into cardboard boxes

By Cory Doctorow at 1:55 am Tuesday, Sep 25 • Comments • Share

Huh?s NOT-A-LAMP and NOT-A-BOX are lights that look like cardboard boxes, with the silhouettes of lamps die-cut into them, a witty little play on the IKEA-style flatpack world of fixtures and furniture. Link to NOT A LAMP, Link to NOT A BOX (via Popgadget)